Why I don’t play video games

This weekend I finished playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, making it the first video/computer game I’ve played all the way through since Fallout. It’s a great game, but playing it reminded me of why I don’t play video games much: my fear of heights extends to video games. There’s a lot of jumping over very deep pits in this game, and a lot of falling to your death. I didn’t handle that very well. Cam can testify about my mental state last night. (Summary: gibbering.)

I don’t know what it is that bothers me so much, and it’s not like the depiction has to be particularly realistic, either. I get a similar feeling of dread in 2D side scrollers like Super Mario Brothers. If the little 8-bit Mario is jumping from block to block in the top half of the screen, with empty space below him, I get sweaty and unhappy. So to have the Prince walking across a beam suspended over a 10-story drop, well… it makes my toes clench just thinking about it. (Cam just called from the other room, “Are you writing about your fear of heights? I can hear you breathing funny.”)

The odd thing is that it doesn’t bother me to climb up on the roof of our house. I can stand up at the peak of the roof and look down at a bone-breaking drop with no problems. So why do I identify so strongly with video game characters standing on ledges? It freaks me out way more than it ought to.

Aside from that, though, it’s a fun game. The story was bleh, but the gameplay was awesome, and included a pretty good mix of puzzles, fighting, and dexterity challenges.

I never could finish that game. At some point the timed “leap, climb, jump, frob, masticate, run-along-wall, jump, balance, pull lever” challenges got old. I became entirely unwilling to repeat them over and over until I shaved 1/4 second off my time.

That said, it was a fun game, and the mechanics and graphics were pretty cool. I think I just don’t need the progressively-harder aspect that draws in many gamers.